November 2017

Malaysia’s $30bln pension fund to allocate more money

Malaysia´s Retirement Fund Inc aims to lift the overseas portion of its investment portfolio to as much as 15 percent from 12, as the $30 billion pension fund looks to boost performance while domestic returns slow, its chief executive told Reuters. Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (KWAP) - the fund´s local name - will review its asset allocation strategy in the new year, Wan Kamaruzaman Wan Ahmad said at Reuters Global Investment 2018 Outlook Summit. Its current international investments include U.S. ride-hailing firm...

Kenya. CMA plans study on Fintech platforms for adoption in sector

The Capital Markets Authority (CMA) is planning a study on financial technology (Fintech) innovations to help open up the sector for tech intermediaries. The proposed regulatory sandbox will allow Fintech start-ups to test and experiment innovations before they are approved as platforms of trade in the market. This is part of the CMA’s 10-year master plan seeking to promote innovations as a way of growing participants and volumes of trade in the capital markets. The baseline diagnostic survey, set for first...

South Africa. Government pension fund says it is ‘over-exposed’ to country’s economy

The Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) is “over-exposed” to the South African economy and this needs to be addressed, says Abel Sithole, the fund’s principal executive officer. The GEPF has had an exposure of close to R500bn in local bonds issued by government and state-owned entities (SOEs), as at the end of March 2017, Parliament heard on Tuesday. According to a written reply to questions posed by members of the standing committee on finance, the GEPF said as at the end...

Largest U.S. pension fund may slash exposure to stocks

The California Public Employees' Retirement System, the largest U.S. pension fund, is considering more than doubling its bond allocation to reduce risk and volatility as the stock bull market approaches nine years. Calpers is looking at a menu of options for its fixed-income target ranging from the current 19 percent to as much as 44 percent, according to a presentation for a board workshop in Sacramento coming up Monday. Equities could be cut to as little as 34 percent from...

Achieving pension goals in retirement: how to move Latin American DC second pillars forward

By Eduardo Rodriguez Montemayor PPI’s Editorial Board editorial@pensionpolicy.net Nobel-prize winner Robert C. Merton stated in more than one occasion that “our approach to DC savings is all wrong: we need to think about monthly income, not net worth”, in reference to how defined-contribution (DC) pension schemes usually focus on maximizing the amount of assets that people accumulate at the time of retirement instead of focusing on actually achieving a regular pension payment during retirement. Nicholas Barr and Peter Diamond, two of the global...

Pension Goals and Institutional Arrangements: Reforms DC 2.0 for Latin America

By Manuel Enrique Garcia Huitron Sr. (Inter-American Development Bank) & Eduardo Rodriguez-Montemayor (INSEAD) The pioneering pension reforms that brought a market for individual defined-contribution (DC) pension accounts to some Latin American countries in the 1980s and 1990s have failed to gain widespread social legitimacy. Such systems do not cover everyone, and the market design and regulatory infrastructure are not geared towards achieving the objective of maximizing the value of pensions. This failure stems from a combination of flaws in the...

Perú. AFP: Se corre el riesgo de una nacionalización de fondos con unidad centralizadora

Giovanna Prialé, presidenta de la Asociacion de AFP, mostró su desacuerdo con la propuesta de Reforma del Sistema de Pensiones, realizada por una comisión de expertos a pedido del MEF, de una unidad centralizadora para el sistema público y privado, eliminando así las AFP. Para Prialé este es un sistema de “alto riesgo” ya que no se sabe si será administrado por un sistema público o privado; corriéndose el riesgo de la “nacionalización de los fondos de pensiones” pese a...

UK. Pensions regulator seeks first criminal charges for dodging auto-enrolment

The Pensions Regulator has for the first time charged an employer for deliberately failing to provide a workplace pension to its staff. Bus company Stotts Tours and its managing director Alan Stott pleaded guilty to 16 offences of failing to comply with the law on workplace pensions, TPR says. The regulator found 36 staff were not provided with a workplace pension and didn’t get paid contributions from June 2015 onwards. TPR director of automatic enrolment Darren Ryder says: “Dozens of staff...

Puerto Rico Governor Signs Executive Order Authorizing Rules for Retirement Plan and IRA Distributions in the Wake of Recent Natural Disasters

On November 8, 2017, the Governor of Puerto Rico signed Executive Order No. 2017-067 (“EO 2017-067”) authorizing the Secretary of the Department of the Treasury (the “PR Treasury”) to establish tax rules for distributions from qualified retirement plans and individual retirement accounts following Hurricane María and other natural disasters. Under EO 2017-067, the PR Treasury must create: Tax rules applicable to distributions from qualified retirement plans and individual retirement accounts (“IRAs”) that are disbursed following Hurricane María or any...

Chile. De $ 500 que se acumulan en una pensión, $ 320 se ahorran entre los 20 y 39 años

Uno de los actores principales de la discusión previsional que hoy está en la palestra es el superintendente de Pensiones, Osvaldo Macías, quien tuvo una importante participación en la preparación de la reforma que lleva adelante el gobierno. Sin embargo, el regulador también sabe dar otras peleas, como la de mejorar la educación en torno al sistema de pensiones, especialmente en los jóvenes, ya que, dice respaldado por las encuestas sobre la materia, en este segmento se da el contrasentido...